Canada's Implementation of the Right to Education for Students with Disabilities

Shah, Seema

International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, v57 n1 p5-20 Mar 2010

This article analyses the content and legal implementation of the right to education as a human right in Canada. It seeks to expose the extent to which Canadian legislative mechanisms have succeeded in protecting the right to education of students with disabilities by using students with epilepsy as a test case. To that end, the article examines the barriers faced by students with epilepsy in realising their right to education. It explores the content of the right to education in international law so as to provide an ideal against which the legal implementation of the right to education in Canada can be measured. In examining the degree to which legal implementation of the right to education for students with disabilities lives up to the ideals espoused in international law, the article analyses the effectiveness of the legal mechanisms that implement the right to education for students with epilepsy in addressing the three types of barriers faced by these students. The revelation of where students with epilepsy fall through the cracks serves as a reflection of the limits of current legal mechanisms in protecting the right to education for students with disabilities.